You are requesting a quote and other information regarding your telecommunications
needs.

I agree to receive quotes, newsletters
and other information from voipmechanic.com
and its partners regarding telecommunicaton services and products.
I understand that I can withdraw my consent at anytime.

Business VoIP Providers

Residential VoIP Providers

VoIP
Installation & Set-Up

VoIP installation information and what you need to know when
connecting up your VoIP service.
We have put together the information and tutorials you need when installing
VoIP. Sometimes it's just plug it in and it works.
Sometimes, it's not. So, if you have some VoIP issues and need them corrected
then VoIP Mechanic will help guide you to the solution.
In many cases, you just plug in the VoIP IAD and start to make calls, but in
some cases you may need a little help. In that case
VoIP Mechanic is here to help you with installation tutorials, explanations,
descriptions and technical help. We also have placed some good
VoIP Links together for you for additional
resources. We can
suggest solutions to installation problems, and we can also suggest
ways to configure your setup for the best possible experience and future reliability
for your VoIP phone right people, to best practices when doing your installation.

*Rates shown do not include taxes, surcharges and E-911 charges. Some providers offering promotions like unlimited calling have restrictions. Read individual providers terms and conditions before you buy.

*Rates shown do not include taxes, surcharges and E-911 charges. Some providers offering promotions like unlimited calling have restrictions. Read individual providers terms and conditions before you buy.

With a little planning and knowledge we can help you
make better connections and better communication, from start to finish, and in
between. The end result will be a better more enjoyable system.
It doesn't take a lot more effort, just follow our advice.

VoIP installation tutorials for cable and DSL.

There
are several different kinds of VoIP installations and environments, We have broken
down some of the major types here:

Cable Broadband with a cable modem.
Plus how to know if your cable
modem signal levels are going to give you the best connection.

DSL broadband with a DSL modem/router.

Wireless ISP with a receiver.

The small to medium business environment.

Using the numerous advanced features that should be offered can solve many small
business's problems. With call forwarding, voice mails as emails,
advanced call forward features such as follow me and call forward on busy, unlimited calling plans and virtual numbers, a small business person can
create a large communication empire.

Cable modem connections are some of the most
straight forward and easy installations for your new VoIP service.
Follow these steps:

Power down the devices, including the cable modem.

Connect an Ethernet cable directly from the cable modem to the Internet
port of the router or router/IAD combo unit, (or directly to the LAN port of the IAD, if not
using a router).

If you are using a separate IAD and a router, then you will want to connect an Ethernet cable from the LAN
port of the IAD to a numbered port on the router.

Connect your computer into a numbered port on the router.

Do a complete power cycle, starting with the cable modem, (give it enough
time to resync), then the router, computer and last the IAD.

Connect a phone with a RJ-11 connector into the Phone 1 or Line 1 port of
the IAD.

Having given the IAD enough time to sync up, lift the receiver and check
for dial tone.

If after connecting a router or a router/IAD you
find that you can neither surf nor get dial tone, after completing two or more
complete power cycles, the issue could be that the cable modem is not allowing a
new IP address to be handed to the new device. This is
particularly an issue with Ambit
modems, which usually have no name on them, but can be is identified by their
light pattern. This can also present itself if your particular
ISP
requires you to register the MAC address of any PC or other device connected to
the modem. If either of these situations occur then a good work around
that should get you up and going would be the following:

Connect the IAD directly to the cable modem and check for two-way audio.
(Do not forget to complete a full power cycle.)

Upon getting good two-way audio directly connected to the modem, then try
to place the IAD in a DMZ zone of the router. Configure router for VoIP

If the router has a firewall built in, then try disabling it and recheck
for two-way audio.

Routers that use firewalls and/or SPI, or use certain types of NAT can make
it difficult for the return voice to make it all the way back to the IAD.
Try putting the IAD outside the router (DMZ or perimeter zone) or placing the
IAD/router first in line, connected directly to the modem and you should be able
to resolve most of these issues.

DSL connections can be more challenging since most
DSL modems are also routers and supply DHCP. Some even have firewalls and will do SPI state-full packet inspection. This can cause double NAT issues, one-way audio and other connectivity problems. When installing for the first time you may want to follow these steps:

With an Ethernet cable connecting the IAD directly to the DSL modem, and a
phone connected into the first phone port, power up the IAD. Check for
dial tone, after waiting for a minute or two. If you have dial tone then
check for two-way audio. If you have two way audio, then:

Connect the router to the DSL modem, using the router as a switch
(disabling DHCP).

If you do not get a dial tone, or have one-way audio then, you will
need to make the DSL modem a bridge and set the router to connect using PPPoE. This will require the correct username (in the correct format) and password
for your DSL account.

The following instructions can be used for many Westell modems and although
it shows a particular ISP's name, it is for display purposes only. It will
be important to have your DSL account's username and password.

If after configuring the DSL modem into bridge mode you
still experience a loss of incoming audio, then the particular router that you
are using may not be sending the return RTP back correctly. Try
placing the IAD into a DMZ zone of the router. One-way audio in VoIP

Installation VoIP in a Business Networked Environment.

Installation in more complicated networks may require special configurations,
depending on the actual network. One of the most
important correctable issues would be to check for double NAT.
A few ideas to overcome installation problems are:

Connect the IAD directly to the first device and check for two-way audio.
If you get one-way audio or no dial tone, then the issue will most likely be
SIP unfriendly NAT, or a firewall that is not allowing the needed packets to
cross.

Try port forwarding or IP tunneling; send the needed packets
directly to the IAD. These will usually be UDP ports 5060, 5061 and a
range of higher UDP ports. You will need to get the exact ports from
your provider.

Place the IAD in a DMZ or perimeter zone, or

Place the IAD outside any firewall and NAT, allowing it to receive a
public IP address.

Remember that different NAT transversals and
firewalls can play havoc with SIP. The issue occurs due the
nature of the VoIP protocols. The signaling of the device is handled by
one protocol, but the voice is handled by another protocol. The voice
protocol may not be associated with the device, so the router does not know
where to send that information. The result can be one-way audio.
VoIP Wiki

Installations with an Ambit Modem (Nicknamed the no-name modem, because you can't find a name on
it.) can be tricky, as they do not easily release the previous MAC
address from the last connected device.

What is the VoIP device called?

The VoIP device can, and is called by several names and references.

● ATA analog telephone
adapter

● TA telephone
adapter (shorter)

● IAD integrated access
device

● Router/phone
combo

● Router/ATA

● CPE
customer premises equipment

We will, from time to time, use any and all of the above to reference the VoIP
phone device.

What is the correct way to do a Power cycle?

The correct way to do a complete power cycle is:

Power down the devices. These usually include
the modem, router, IAD and computer.

Make sure all the devices are connected with the
proper Ethernet cables, then power up the devices in the following order:

First the modem, giving it enough time to reconnect
completely with the ISP, (usually a minute).

Second the router or router/IAD combo unit.

Third the computer (reboot).

Fourth the IAD, allowing enough time connecting with
the VoIP provider.

Then check for Internet connectivity through the
computer and dial tone from the phone.

Ethernet vs. USB

To connect your PC to a VoIP IAD you must use
Ethernet. If you currently connect to a modem with a USB connection,
change it to Ethernet. Do not connect both USB and Ethernet connections to
the modem.

What type of phones work with VoIP?

Phones that are labeled FCC part 68
compliant certainly will certainly work and so will most analog "regular"
phones. What won't work are the digital proprietary phones that are made
for specific PBX phone systems. These are usually business multi-line
phones are could be Samsung, Teltronix, Comdial, Intertel, Panasonic, or a host
of other names, but were part of a PBX system at one time.